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DNC official talks importance of voting

For Immediate Release: Oct. 4, 2016

BLOOMSBURG— With Election Day quickly approaching, veteran Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile will speak about the importance of voting on Tuesday, Oct. 18, at 6 p.m. in the Haas Center for the Arts, Mitrani Hall at Bloomsburg University. This program is free and open to the public.

Brazile, Democratic National Committee interim chairwoman, is an adjunct professor, author, syndicated columnist and television political commentator. She is the former interim national chair of the Democratic National Convention as well as former chair of the Democratic National Convention’s Voting Rights Institute.

Brazile’s political career began when she was 9-years-old as she worked to successfully elect a city council candidate who promised to build a playground in her native New Orleans. Through her passion for political progress and four decades of state and local campaigns, Brazile worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 to 2000, when she became the first African American to manage a presidential campaign.

An adjunct professor at Georgetown University, Brazile is a columnist for Universal Uclick, Ms. magazine and O, The Oprah Magazine as well as the bestselling author of the memoir, “Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics.” Brazile is an on-air contributor for CNN and ABC, regularly appearing on “This Week.” She was honored as one of 20 remarkable visionaries on O Magazine’s Power List. She was named among the 100 most powerful women by Washingtonian magazine and top 50 women in America by Essence magazine and received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s highest award for political achievement.

Joining Brazile on Oct. 18 is Karen Smith Coates, who will speak about the importance of involvement in the state government. Coates, who graduated from BU in 1985, is chief of staff and chief counsel in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and director of legislative affairs in the Pennsylvania House Republican Caucus. A graduate of Penn State Dickinson School of Law, Coates is the first female chief of staff to the speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, which is the highest position in the State House. She previously served as the director of legislative affairs to then majority leader, Mike Turzai, and was named one of the “smartest staffers” at the Capitol in an independent survey taken for PoliticsPA.com in 2011. She practiced law in the private sector for 20 years prior to her employment with the House Republican caucus.

This presentation is sponsored by the Office of the President, Student Affairs, Multicultural Center, Greek Life, Civic Engagement, Center for Diversity and Inclusion, Center for Leadership and Engagement and the College of Liberal Arts.

Bloomsburg University is one of 14 universities in Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education. The university serves approximately 10,000 students, offering comprehensive programs of study in the colleges of Education, Business, Liberal Arts and Science and Technology.